Frecuencia de desnutrición energéticonutrimental en el hospital "Amalia Simoni Argilagos"

Abstract

Rationale: It is accepted that Energey-Nutrient Malnutrition (ENM) increases the morbidity, mortality, length of stay and costs in the health care centres. Description: A prospective study was conducted at the “Amalia Simoni Argilagos” Hospital (Camagüey, Cuba) in order to estimate the frequency of ENM. The study was included within the Branch Research Program in Health Services. Aim: To estimate the frequency of ENM , as part of a national, multicenter Project. Design: To survey
158 randomly selected patients. The study was conduced in two stages. First stage: An audit of the patient’s clinical record.
Second Stage: nutritional assessment by means of the Subjective Global Assessment tool. The survey was conducted by a properly trained and educated team. Results: 64 patients (40,5 %; CI 95 %: 39,2 – 48,1) were clasified as malnourished. 12,0% of the patients were considered severely malnourished. High-nutritional risk areas were identified as those with an ENM
estimated frequency above the established epidemiological channel: Critical Care (69,2 %), Internal Medicine (60,0 %),
Geriatrícs (50,0 %) and Neumology (40,0 %). The probability of receiving a malnutrition score increased 1,7 times with prolonged hospitalization time. Conclusions: ENM is a highly prevalent disease in our hospital. This study calls for the need to create a nutritional support group who will be in charge of the design and implementation of an intervention program, wich must be oriented to minimize the deletereal effects of ENM in our center.